Senior practitioners of Chito-ryu karate live under long shadows. First there is enormous shadow cast by founder Tsuyoshi Chitose, a martial arts virtuoso who studied under many masters and synthesized what he learned into his remarkable art. Then there are the shadows cast by the pioneers who introduced Chito-ryu to their countries and amassed impressive…
The English-language Ryusei Karate-Do Technical Manual was published last fall. It includes a translation of the original Japanese manual, written by Sakamoto-Sensei, with his understanding of Chito-ryu technique, as well some excursions into history and philiosophy. To this we have added illustrations of the lower belt techniques, kata and bunkai and an expanded glossary. To top this…
When Sakamoto-Sensei came to Canada in 2000, he did a demonstration and for the first time I got to see the koryu kata being performed. These are old style or ancient kata once performed in Okinawa and often with Chinese roots. I was really impressed by his performance. I had never seen anyone move like…
The following is a piece I wrote about my teacher, Shane Higashi – 9th dan, head of the Canadian Chito-Ryu Karate Association – for the program given out at the celebration of his 50 years of teaching karate, held last April in Toronto. * * * To the cheers of 1,500 enthusiastic fans a 24-year-old…
Most martial artists train to learn how to protect themselves and others. Eventually they ask themselves how well their training is preparing them for this task. After all, there are many styles and systems and not all really teach adequate self-defence skills. This oversight, in my opinion, could have grave consequences. Since I am a…